This Much

As a follow up to Grimp's post earlier on Thomas Sowell and Wal-Mart's effect on the economy, I give you this:

However, if we do not quite see the underlying logic of exchange and how it works to help everyone, it is easy to underappreciate what market trading means to society. This is a tendency in the circles that discuss issues of social justice. The market is rarely given the credit it deserves for helping humanity improve its lot. In fact, the market is nothing but the cooperative interaction of humanity in improving the commonweal.

That's from Jeffrey Tucker at the Mises Econ Blog hosted at the Christian Science Monitor.

Parents v. The Government of the United States of America

A good post on liberty vs. accountability (and why functioning societies need both, not just liberty), from brand new libertarian/classical liberal blog Pileus.

The Importance of Being

I've written before about the importance of understanding the other side's arguments. Here is libertarian economist Tyler Cowen's attempt to describe modern conservatism. I happen to disagree with his point #4, which I think he has backwards. Strong family structures are the most important domestic issue, from which follows a strong educational underpinning. Tyler is talking about school-based education, which, to me, is only a part of a child's educational experience.
The most thought-provoking point:

10. Responsibility is a more important value than either liberty or equality.

I believe (individual) responsibility both leads to and follows from liberty. And as I have said before, conservatives believe in equality of opportunity, not equality of results. It is difficult for me to separate those three values and assign priority to one or the other, but I think he probably has the order correct.

This is a follow-up to his previous attempt to define progressivism.

See also this follow-up post:

Consider the way our views normally evolve. We sort of hunker down in our ideological bunkers trying to fend off various attacks and challenges. Sometimes an especially forceful argument will require a modification in the fortifications—and on rare occasions, we’ll even be forced to abandon a position. Which is to say, we learn from other perspectives largely in a defensive mode, through a kind of Darwinian selection of arguments. But what if instead we tried to use the insights available from our own perspectives, not to defeat or convert the other guy, but to give his argument its best form? This might sound like giving aid and comfort to the enemy, but even in terms of the Darwinian struggle, there’s value to being able to show how your view trumps even the optimal form of the competition.

Typically, when we’re not at battle stations, we recognize that the other guy’s values are genuine values; we just give priority to different ones.